Carmen Small: What It's Like to Race Bikes With Men

In 2014, pro road racer Carmen Small won the North Star Grand Prix. This year, her goals were slightly different: She just wanted to survive. Survival, however, wasn’t completely guaranteed: This year, instead of leading the women’s race, Small would be competing as a guest rider on a men’s team, since the women’s race was cancelled. She was worried about being able to hang with the boys all week, but she didn’t need to be: She finished 72nd out of 80, more than 30 minutes ahead of the last finisher. Not too shabby.

We spoke with Small after the first stage of the five-day race, a time trial, and then again after the event to get her opinions on how the racing went—and what her participation means for women’s cycling.

AFTER STAGE 1:Bicycling: Was it different being surrounded by all guys at the start line?
Carmen Small: That was a little bit weird, yeah! I mean, the whole thing was strange, a little bit awkward. It’s not like I was preparing for the race, I was thrown into it last minute.

How were your teammates?
Incredible. It’s a really great group of guys, super supportive. They did awesome at the race, and I was so happy for them. It’s really cool to be a part of it and see the team stepping it up and going for their own goals.

How have the rest of the racers reacted to you in the peloton?
I got some pretty strange looks. I can’t tell what the majority of the guys think, but the ones I know from other teams have been really supportive.

How do you anticipate the rest of the racing playing out?
I hope they treat me like just one of the racers. It’s going to be really different because the speeds are going to be a lot higher than what I’m used to. Hopefully I can position myself OK and just hang in there. I would like to say I’m a decent bike handler, so hopefully I can hang with my skill level, and they respect me as a participant. For sure, the racing will be faster and longer. But I’ve had a ton of texts and messages from outside people cheering for me and making really supportive comments, and that’s been really encouraging.

It seems like you’ll have all eyes on you for this race!
Yeah, something different. I like it!

How did you come to guest-ride for the team to begin with?
I was talking to [Optum rider] Jesse Anthony last week and just catching up. I knew this race was starting, and I said it was a bummer that there wasn’t a women’s race this year. I was just at home training and I didn’t have anything scheduled. I made a comment that it would be cool to race with the guys and he said, "Why not?" I laughed, but he said he just got off the phone with Ben Spies from Elbowz, and they were looking for another rider. He asked if I’d be up for it, and I said, "I don’t know, should I?" He said he thought I should do it and called Ben, who liked the idea. Twenty minutes later, I was committed to doing it! Ben is great and he just wants to support racing in general.

Do you see this as taking a stand, or are you just racing your bike?
It’s been kind of weird. Some people had this negative reaction to it, like, "Oh, she doesn’t blow away the women’s field, why does she need to race with the men?" And I’m like, "Well, that’s not really the point." The point was that I wanted to race, and the race wasn’t putting on a women’s event this year. It’s all kind of come together for the best, I think, because I get to race at a really high level to improve my fitness for the rest of the season. It’ll be the hardest week of my life, but it will be really great. Also, the race needs media. When I contacted the promoter Dave LaPorte to see if it was even possible for me to race, I realized he’d get a lot of press out of it as well. And if I can bring any kind of media to look at the race and see that it’s really good, they’ll see that there needs to be a pro women’s race here and that women need to show up and participate. It’s a great race, and it’s a huge hole in our NRC calendar. It wasn’t a feminist movement, I don’t need to race with men. Elbowz is helping me out because I needed race days, and it helps the promoter, it brings attention to the race. It can only be positive, me showing up to participate.

What are your expectations for the race?
Just to finish the stages and have my name in the results is a huge goal. I’m not dumb, I know it’s a hard week. I’m not thinking I’m just going to kick ass and beat up on the boys. I’m realistic. These guys are at the top of their level, it’s not a bunch of amateur racers. But I hope I can hang in and make the time cuts. That’s the biggest goal. And a bonus would be helping out the team in any way that I can. If I can get water bottles from the car in a road race, if I can help chase something down…sacrifice me, I don’t care!

POST-RACE:
It seems like you had a good week!
It was really good. I was super excited to finish the stage race and see it through. It was hard, but I knew it would be. I felt good. I feel like I maybe could have pressed my limits a little more, but I stayed on the conservative side just because I wanted to finish. It’s a fine line, not overdoing it, but meeting the time cuts.

How were the other racers?
The guys were all great. They were super nice to me, helpful, I had a lot of good chats with them. They were really respectful. They didn’t make it easy on me, but by the end, I think that I had gained a lot of respect. And two of the racers—not teammates of mine—actually stayed with me at Stillwater to help me pace around the course to make sure I made the time cut that day. That was incredible. And Elbowz is a great group of guys, they were fun to be around. They were respectful of my goals, which didn’t always correspond with team goals. And they raced phenomenally last week too.

How did it measure up to women’s racing?
It doesn’t! It doesn’t compare. The speed that they travel is so much greater. The women, we’re super strong, and the races are super hard. We always race hard. But the speed—I finished 85 miles in three hours and ten minutes here, which is crazy. And that wasn’t flat!

Would you ever do this again?
That’s a hard one. This was kind of a perfect storm how it came together. I don’t know that I’d plan it this way. I wouldn’t mind jumping into some local races, which is pretty normal for pro women to do. But a stage race—it definitely pushed my limits. I wouldn’t be opposed to it but I don’t know that I’d seek it out. And I know a lot of the directors worry that this will start a whole thing where women just want to race with the men. I got a lot of nice comments from the guys, and they said a big part of it was that if I couldn’t stick in the pack, I wouldn’t be there.

What was the best part?
At the crits, so many families and parents were bringing their little girls up to me and taking pictures. To make that kind of impact—I never think of myself as someone’s hero…but it was kind of true. And to be able to sign little jerseys and take pictures with little girls, that was the highlight of the week. To be able to reach out to different people who were so supportive.

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